Targeting resources and environmental issues by understanding the Earth system

Characterization of frontier resources

Seafloor mineral resources attract our attention as a novel source of various metals critical for the modern society. However, the distribution and resource potential of such frontier resources are difficult to understand. We aim to quantify the contents and visualize the spatial distributions of critical metals in seafloor mineral resources, based on high-precision chemical analyses.

Genesis of resources and guide for exploration

Resources are abnormal concentrations of elements/compounds in nature. We aim to decipher the source components and/or physicochemical processes that contributed to formation of the resources by statistically analyzing multi-elemental data. Clarifying the condition(s) needed for the resource formation can provide a useful guide for the exploration of the resource.

Earth system’s responses to climate changes

Climate change, or global warming, is one of the urgent issues for human society. On a geologic timescale (more than tens of thousands of years), it is considered that, after an abrupt and massive carbon emission, Earth system removes the excess carbon via natural processes. To understand this negative feedback in Earth system quantitatively, we implement geochemical and statistical analyses of geologic samples that record the signature of past global warmings. We also create some computer simulations of geochemical cycles on the Earth’s surface.